Hulu is finally adding offline downloads – but there’s a catch

US TV on-demand giant Hulu has announced plans to introduce offline downloads. In an effort to keep pace with Netflix and Amazon Prime, the streaming service will launch the download facility later this year.

Unfortunately, for some of the firm’s 20 million paying customers, it won’t be the seamless, uninterrupted experience offered by the aforementioned duo.

On the ad-supported tier, Hulu is going to be adding the same pre-roll commercials to the downloaded content, you’d be seeing if you were watching the shows over the web.

So, while you might be able to download a season of NBC’s This Is Us for a sob-a-thon on a long haul flight, you’re still going to get those pesky ads. And you won’t be able to fast-forward through them either.

Thankfully, if you’re forking over a few dollars extra for the no commercials tier, you won’t be burdened by advertisements when utilising offline playback.